Government Functionaries Train Next Generation of Smarmy Scolds

They know better because they think they are better

In the Sunday, March 23, 2014 edition of the "Knoxville News Sentinel", there is an article titled "Students use body bags to show tobacco's effects".  According to this article, high schoolers volunteered to lay on top of body bags, with a statistic filled tombstone by their heads, on Market Square, as a physical show of the dangers of tobacco. 

  This is a project of the Knox County Youth Health Board.  According to the article, Kathryn Burklund set this up.  She is the public health education coordinator for Tobacco Use Prevention.  

Breaking new:  Use of tobacco products could endanger your health.

These kids are learning a lesson here.  Stupid and pointless gestures get approval from adults and media coverage.  How else would the next generation of smarmy scolds get trained.  These kids are the ones' who will be hectoring us in the future about how to live our lives to suit them.  Don't think, just do as your told.

If you cannot picture what a smarmy scold is, think of the movie "Animal House".  You know the guys in the fraternity Omega Theta Pi.  The fraternity that was not "Animal House"  Yeah, Neidermeyer and Marmalard.

That is who these kids are going to grow up to be.

Remind me to stay away from Market Square.

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Not having health insurance is not freeloading. Not paying your bills is freeloading

Not having insurance is not freeloading

Ina Hughes always manages to annoy me.  Ina Hughes writes for the "Knoxville News Sentinel".  She has a rather myopic world view and does not seem to understand the phrase "correlation is not causation".  Miss Hughes also does not seem to understand free will.

Apparently, Miss Hughes spent days in the hospital for tests and a medication update and wrote about it in her column today.  Miss Hughes saw a woman in an SUV (clearly living too large) park and enter the emergency room.  The woman wanted to see a doctor for a cold (clearly an idiot). 

When Ms. Hughes questioned the nurse, the nurse told her these people don't have a doctor, don't have insurance and don't pay.  Ms. Hughes posits that these people are freeloaders because they don't have insurance.  She also posits that they have car payments, eat out and have gym memberships.

The Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is going to fix this because these "freeloaders"  will be forced to have insurance, in Miss Hughes world.

Big problem.  These people have free will and may choose to pay the fine and still not have insurance.  They may choose to wait until they are ill and then get Affordable Care Act Insurance.  Since we don't (yet) have debtors' prisons or jail sentences for those who do not take Obamacare, what is to stop them.

More importantly, I disagree with Miss Hughes that people who don't have insurance are freeloaders.  People who don't pay their debts are freeloaders.  In my world, people who don't have health insurance are taking a big risk.  In my youth, I turned down company offered health insurance for more vacation time.  When I did see a doctor, and you can see a doctor without insurance, I PAID the bill.

People who don't have insurance are gamblers.  People who don't pay their bills are immoral jerks.

Tennessee is really behind in sex, according to local scholar

Edition Two

Publik Edukashun

Gloria Johnson, D., a state representative and teacher led a rally on Market Square of about 100 people (wow), according to an article in today's Knoxville News Sentinel.  I don't understand liberal white peoples' obsession with denying quality education to minority children.  Maybe Gloria Johnson and Bill de Blasio, D., NYC Mayor could get together and explain it to us all.  

The fact that nearly 100 people showed up gives us all hope that opposing vouchers and charter schools is a losing proposition.  Remember the jokes about turning on the lights at Neyland Stadium and 20 thousand people just showing up!

Sex Mascots and Summer Camp

Another elucidating article in the same newspaper today has Haslam Scholar Brianna Rader patiently condescendingly explaining to all of us hicks, who have never lived anywhere else or been educated about anything at all, that penis and vagina mascots running around The University of Tennessee campus for "Sex Week"  is a sign of forward thinking sophistication.

Brianna wants us to know that The University of California-Berkeley had these very same mascot costumes at a middle school, summer sex education camp.  And, the quote in the Knoxville newspaper of record, hand to God, is, "Just as a comparison, that's how behind Tennessee is.", according to Brianna.

Without young sophisticates like Brianna how would we ever know.

Final Thoughts

Brianna Rader is a graduate of Halls High School.  Well done!  Gloria Johnson is a teacher at Richard Yoakley.  O.K.

Separation of Church and State for Thee, but Not for Me.

Edition One

Separation of Church and State the Madeline Rogero Version

According to a March 11, Knoxville News Sentinel article, Knoxville City Mayor Madeline Rogero met with local clergy to enlighten/beg them to preach the gospel of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare to their faith communities.  

What happened to Separation of Church and State, which although it does not appear in the Constitution, is accepted fact among some in our fair land?  Well, for Madame Rogero, if it suits her purposes, it does not exist.  

While I find this annoying enough, some of her quoted comments are reprehensible.  Such as:

“Healthy people with affordable insurance put more money in the collection plate!”

Spare me, Lord.  If any preacher I ever met started pimping promoting a government program from the pulpit, I would leave.  #shame #MadelineRogero.

Get Fruved

Oh, you read that right.  In today's Knoxville New Sentinel, an article touts the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has authorized a $4,900,000 grant to the University of Tennessee 4-H extension program to combat "childhood obesity".  This is a peer to peer mentoring program.  It has a social media marketing element called "Get Fruved".  I don't kid.  This is a mash up of fruits and vegetables.

Get Fruved!  Get .... Fruved!  Did a ten year old come up this idea.  Did they talk to the Marketing Department.  Get Fruved is memorable and nmemonic. I do kid.  

The University loves the peer to peer programs.  They are creating them all over the place.  Two reasons.  First, they eliminate parental participation.  Second, they absolve the University of any responsibility.

This is $4,900,000 of your money, Knoxville and Tennessee and the United States of America.  For Get Fruved.  That giant sucking sound you hear is $4,900,000 circling the drain.  #toilet

That is all from here in the shadow of the Sunsphere.

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Our First News Edition Comes Later Today

I am ToniKnoxville

For quite some time, the news reporting in the Knoxville News Sentinel has annoyed me to distraction.  So, instead of kvetching to myself, I have decided you should get to enjoy my opinion.  I will say what I think and you can agree or disagree.  

This is the only way I can continue to justify the expense of a daily newspaper subscription.  I started reading a paper everyday when I was little and I can't stop now.  Even though the Knoxville Sentinel is excrement, I am compelled by age to continue to take it.

Truman the Wonder Dog

Truman the Wonder Dog is my faithful sidekick and personal trainer.  He may offer his opinion occasionally.

Walt Williams, my husband

My husband, Walt Williams, is a 1970 Bearden High School Grad, and has his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee.  He may weigh in on whatever subjects he wishes.

Our son, John

Our son John is deployed and doesn't talk to the media.

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